CFL's Best? It's a Moon Shot

Seven CFL quarterbacks went on to have successful NFL careers -- but only Warren Moon earned a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Doug Flutie photo courtesy of the Buffalo Bills

(Warren Moon photo courtesy of the Tennessee Titans)

(Doug Flutie photo courtesy of the Buffalo Bills)

Talk of Fame Network

The Canadian Football League (CFL) has sent its share of quality quarterbacks to the NFL.

Joe Thiesmann became an NFL MVP in 1983 and quarterbacked the Washington Redskins to a Lombardi Trophy. Tobin Rote led the Detroit Lions to an NFL title in 1957, Joe Kapp took the Minnesota Vikings to a Super Bowl in 1970 and Dieter Brock the Los Angeles Rams to the 1985 NFC title game. Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia and Warren Moon all became Pro Bowl quarterbacks.

But only one of those seven quarterbacks would go on to earn a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and that quarterback -- Moon -- was the runaway winner of The Talk of Fame Network’s poll last week as the best player ever to come out of the CFL.

Moon was one of five candidates on the CFL ballot along with Flutie, Kapp, Theismann and Miami’s Pro Bowl pass rusher, Cameron Wake. Moon received 64 percent of the vote to outdistance the runnerup, Flutie, at 18 percent

Flutie was the better quarterback in Canada, earning CFL MVP honors six times in his eight seasons, but Moon was the better quarterback in the NFL. He passed for 49,353 yards in the NFL, seventh most in league history. He also went to nine Pro Bowls. Moon is joined by Brock, Flutie and Kapp in the CFL Hall of Fame.

Wake, the only non-quarterback on the ballot, played two seasons in the CFL and led the league in sacks both years. He then returned state-side with Miami and enters his seventh season with the Dolphins this fall. He has gone to the Pro Bowl four times in his first six seasons.